Road worker safety compromised by poor driving practices

The safety of more than 200 road workers along the Pacific Highway on the Mid North Coast of NSW is causing concern to the Australian Workers Union who represent the workforce building the Pacific Highway dual carriageway.

" The community correctly demands improvements on the Pacific Highway to improve safety but hundreds of workers find their own personal safety threatened during the construction process," Kevin Maher, the AWU Secretary for the Newcastle, Central Coast and Northern Regions Branch, said today.

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" These road workers are working hard to build dual carriageways to make travel on the Pacific Highway much safer for the road users however, many road users driving through that site are taking no notice of the speed limits and no notice of the changed road conditions.

" This failure to maintain basic road safety practice is seriously compromising the safety of those road workers," Kevin Maher warned.

The Police of the Manning Great Lakes Local Area Command have been doing their best in policing the speed limits however, resources are limited.

AWU officials will be on that worksite Wednesday morning 26th March, 2008 from 7am for a number of hours to assist in providing a safer worksite and highlight the major problems AWU members face on this worksite.